Thesis 1. The law of God, that most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance humans on their way to righteousness, but rather hinders them.

    Michael Jackson died this week. Aside from concern over the state of his soul, I'm not broken up about it. I was never much of a fan. I will say this, though. Michael Jackson was enormously talented and worked hard at his craft. But he was also enormously twisted. Michael Jackson was blessed by a gracious God with great gifts, good health and opportunity to use them. Instead of being thankful and using his gifts to bless his Father, he wasted them in futile endeavors of self-aggrandizement and self-perfection.  It seems to me that at one time he was a Jehovah's Witness. (I may be wrong about that.) But it would fit if he were.  

    Michael Jackson was all about changing himself through his own efforts.  He worked hard to try to outwardly change himself into something other than what he was (a black male). He had immense resources that he squandered in his vain attempt to escape his despair as no real change was ever sustainable. Like many poets, he was aware of the darkness within his soul and did all he could to heal that darkness. But he also loved the darkness and had no inward power to transform himself. He lived a life of pride, perversion, despair. And he died like a circus freak. There is only one inevitability when we live with largess in the glory story: freakish despair and ultimately a tasteless nibble for Screwtape.

    I am sorry for Michael Jackson and I would like to think that there is a great gulf fixed between MJ and myself. It's not true though. MJ was seeking out a way to advance his own righteousness. Yes, probably, righteousness in his own eyes. But surely, at least at one time, in the eyes of God. He constructed laws and sought to obey them. He couldn't so he gave himself more-and-more to neverland fantasies, skin bleach, scalpels, perversion and despair. 

    I don't have the inclination to bleach my skin or get plastic surgery. But, like MJ I'm tempted to believe that I can perfect myself through my own efforts. It's here that Luther's first thesis gets at me. I assume that "good works done in obedience to divine law must be the way" (23) to advance toward righteousness.  I have a different grid than MJ did. My inclinations (and giftings) run in a different stream. But that doesn't mean that I'm different from him at heart. I, too, fight the cross and want to embrace the law. Anything to avoid that humiliation! Really!

    Here's Luther's take on our ability to advance into righteousness through the law. "...the law cannot advance us to righteousness. The law cannot save. The shocking fact is that the law is not a remedy for sin, although we never quite seem to believe that.  Indeed, when righteousness before God is at stake, It only makes matters worse."  (24)  The law, as Luther (and Paul) say, is "holy and righteous and good", "most salutary." It is good but we are not. And because of that, it stirs up sin within us and plays into our natural self-trust. Don't think that Luther is only being concerned about the Michael Jacksons of the world. He's speaking to those who "stand under the revealed law of God, the people of God." Here's why: "It is common among evangelical Christians to believe that we can't perfectly fulfill the law, but we often try to because we assume that if only we could we would do it. So we believe that we must try to do something at least, and then, it is assumed, Christ will make up for our 'shortcomings'. But here is the bombshell: doing the law does not advance the cause of righteousness one whit. It only makes matters worse." (24)

    So...if I can't bring to God at least a little bit of my good law-keeping -- after all, I'm not like a Michael Jackson!!! -- then what can I bring? How can I stand? Only by the gospel: the incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension and reign of the God-Man, my Savior, Jesus Christ.  So, I must flee Sinai and run to Calvary. 

    Here's the reality. Without the cross we all are circus freaks in the eyes of God. Slicing and dicing and sprucing and bleaching and working and working and working to recreate ourselves into our own image of perfection. Chutes and Ladders over and over again.  We must embrace the gospel every moment of every day or we will work and work and work and then slide right back down to start over again. Hear Luther again, "The righteousness that obtains before God comes 'apart from the law,' through the gospel of resurrection [new life]. So we have the paradox that the very law of God does not improve sinners but makes them worse. The cross itself...is proof of that." (25) If the law (any law) could make anyone righteous Christ would never have died. We wouldn't have had the need to be made entirely new. We would merely have need of education and loads of stickey pads and plastic surgeons. 

    But the perfect, spotless Lamb did die. He died because he had done what we never could have done. He fulfilled the Law and then took our punishment. Thank God for his wounds, for the white robes of righteousness that are now yours. And mourn. For for all the Michael Jacksons in the world who are revolving round and round on their neverland merry-go-rounds of Law heading to nowhere; trying to reach the golden ring that will turn to dust and despair as soon as the grasp it. And then throw yourself again and again into your Savior's nail-pierced hands and say, "There but for the grace of God go I"?... No, not quite, "There go I again and again and there I would eternally stay but for the sweet grace of God." And then smile a true, wrinkled smile, spread the joyous news.     

    As I've heard from many of you that you're still awaiting the arrival of your book, I'll fool around here in the Introductory Matters for a few more days in the hopes that you'll not get discouraged or impatient or covetous of those of us who have Kindles or who ordered the book weeks ago and have already dug into it.  The truth is that I love this chapter and could hang out here indefinitely. 
    
    Forde is developing the thought that the theology of the cross is offensive because it attacks what we "usually consider best in our religion." Of course, we're not terribly concerned about discussing what is evil or obviously bad in our religion, "our bad works," because we don't fall into the trap of feeling proud about them or putting our trust in them.  He says that theologians of the cross are more concerned about the "pretension that comes with our good works." In other words, we're not tempted to be proud about our sin, we don't put our trust in it, but we are tempted to be proud and put our trust in our goodnesses -- our prayers, our devotions, our witnessing, our church attendance, our good theology, our growth in sanctification, our refusal to sin. Which leads me to my discussion tonight: There Really Are Only Two Religions in the World. The ultimate question in your religion tonight is, "Who do you trust?"

   I'm sure you've noticed the "Co-Exist" bumper-stickers that use the symbols of different religions. The message is clear: there are all sorts of equally "true" religious "truths" so in the words of that great diplomat, Rodney King, "Why can't we all just get along???" 
    
    The producers of that bumper sticker (and most of us) have misunderstood Christianity. Christianity is not like any other religion. Christianity does not tell you how to live so that you can obtain eternal life. Christianity tells you that you cannot do anything worthy of eternal life. Christianity tells you that all your goodnesses are like a used Kotex (Isa. 64:6). (Sorry, guys!) Wow! That's offensive! Put that on a bumper sticker! "Hey, you, reading this bumper-sticker, all that good you did today (recycling, mowing, exercising, eating healthy, giving blood, volunteering, being nice to a nasty co-worker, merging without screaming at other drivers, remembering your dad) that made you feel good about yourself and assured you that you're really okay, is in actuality a putrid pile of rot and God thinks it's like a used Tampon." Yipes. Maybe it's a good thing I couldn't fit all that onto a bumper sticker. 

    All that good you did will damn you if you trust in it, or as Forde writes, "...the way of glory, the way of law, human works and free will...simply operates as a defense mechanism against the cross." (12)

    On that "Co-exist" bumper sticker there should be only two figures: the cross and a human stick figure that would represent everything else: Islam, Buddhism, atheism, intellectualism, hedonism, Mormonism...I know that most of you are shaking your head in agreement with that. Yeah! Those people and all their "works-righteousness" really stink! Those people!!! But now stop and think: Luther isn't talking only to "those people." He's talking to us all. To people who would say that they trust Christ for their righteousness and then live as though what he did was nice but not all that necessary. Or maybe it was necessary but just for getting in the door. Surely, there's something we can add, isn't there?And, by the way, the way of the cross and the glory story will NEVER just get along because the way of the cross is so demeaning and frankly, apart from the work of the Spirit it just aggravates us. How insulting! The cross is offensive. Being told that all your goodnesses reek will tick you off unless God's been at work attacking your self-esteem. Perhaps that bumper sticker should have a cross and next to it a stick figure fighting against it with the word "impossible".

    The Disputation demonstrates that there are antitheses -- the differing stories "focus on basic issues of salvation: the question of law and works; the power of the human will; the attempt to 'see' God; the task of speaking the truth in these matters; faith and ultimately of the love of God, which creates its own object...In every instance all loopholes are closed so that the believer will in the end simply be cast on that creative love of God, which makes the object of its love out of the nothing to which the sinner has been reduced." (p. 12, italics added).  Better go back and reread that quote. Here's the difference between gospel Christianity and every other form of religion, including all so-called Christianity that isn't focused on the cross: in gospel Christianity we are annihilated by the cross and then God, by his love makes us into what he wants us to be and we become this simply by believing that he's that good, that powerful, that loving, that merciful. This is shocking. It is humiliating. It is annihilating. It is freeing. It makes us smile.  

    There are only two stories, only two religions. There is the doomed and despairing glory story, the "'glory road', a way of law, which the fallen creature can traverse by willing and working and thus gain the necessary merit eventually to arrive at glory....[In this view]
[t]he cross 'makes up' for failures along the glory road." (12) Works-righteousness is the way of every religion. This is the way of Chutes and Ladders Christianity: Attend church today? Go ahead 3 spaces. Say a bad word in your heart? Move back 2! Practice hospitality? Move ahead 6 spaces and pick a pretty flower! Lose your temper with your spouse on Father's Day? Spend three turns in purgatory. Feel properly sorry. Make up for it by making his favorite meal. Tell the children to be quiet. Light candles. Work it off. Read Joel Osteen? Fold up the board. You lose. You lose because you've landed on a chute that will slide you down into the drowning despair of a "sea of narcissistic moralism" (Mike Horton's phrase). You're dying of thirst but you'll never get a soul-satisfying drink. You'll never make it out of this bog on your own because your  "soul's insatiable thirst for glory is not ended by satisfying it but rather by extinguishing it." 

   And then there is the story of the cross. "In theological terms, we must come to confess that we are addicted to sin, addicted to self, whatever form that may take, pious or impious. So theologians of the cross know that we can't be helped by optimistic appeals to glory, strength, wisdom, positive thinking and so forth because those things are themselves the problem. To repeat Luther again, the thirst for glory or power or wisdom is never satisfied even by the acquisition of it. We always want more -- precisely so that we can declare independence from God" (17), or to paraphrase Tim Keller, we construct strategies of our good works precisely so that we can avoid the humiliation that comes when Jesus is Savior.  

    Luther's (and, I believe, the Bible's) cure for this thirst for independence and self-erected glory is the cross. "The cross does the extinguishing. The cross is the death of sin, and the sinner." (17, italics added) Why? because the cross tells us the truth about ourselves. We've got nothing to offer but demerit. But we are loved. Because we are loved, we'll be kept and changed and glorified. Because we've been loved, we've been effectually called, given faith, granted a heart of repentance, justified, adopted and sanctified. He speaks as though our glorification has already happened. We're in union with Christ. Annihilating, liberating truth! Alleluias! 

    Fold up the board. He's won. You're in him. Now...live in the light of that. Trust him. There are only two religions. In one you trust in yourself. In the other you trust him. He's already made every righteous move on the board and he's been punished for every wrong move you've made. He's ruling now as the exalted King and...oh...by the way...he's your husband. So, put away the board and pick up all the game cards that tell you how to make yourself good and flush 'em with...everything else that needs flushing... and trust in him. Alone.

    Permit me to make one more comment from the Preface: Forde asks: "Has the thirst for glory finally issued in the despair Luther foresaw? This treatise is written with the suspicion that the malaise of the theology of glory is the ultimate source of contemporary despair, not the theology of the cross." xiv

    Everywhere I look I see people despairing because they don't believe there's any real hope left. Don't we see that in the multiplied addictions that flood our streets? From eating to gambling to drugs and alcohol, to cutting and internet porn...people are simply drowning themselves in despair and well...stuff. More and more stuff. The world's quite an easy target, frankly. Anesthetize the soul with today's drug de jour. Wear a Mickey hat. Ride a new coaster. Eat a cream-cheese filled pretzel. Forget. Enjoy. Spend. Eat, drink, be merry. Tomorrow we'll do it all over again. On-and-on, there's really nothing more and everything we've tried has failed. So much for the allurements of cheesy Vanity Fair. What about an intellectual Vanity Fair? Or a Vanity Fair for progressives? Or a visit to the Moralist?

    Christians should recognize the folly of trying to quiet the despair we've experienced by multiplying idols, but we bow down anyway. We try to silence the despair and fill the vacancy with all sorts of moral glory stories. Stories that we add to the story of the cross. Stories of "reforming the culture" with our politics; saving our children by homeschooling them; celebrating recycling; saving gender roles; saving our bodies by eating organically; celebrating modesty; celebrating Christian sex; saving the planet by being vegan; saving whales; saving the unborn; doing yoga; celebrating recovery; preserving good doctrine; celebrating beer; saving Willow Palin; saving our Christian nation; saving the KJV; celebrating morality; saving abused dogs. 

    Please don't misunderstand. I'm not saying that any of these things are idolatrous in themselves. I'm thankful for many of them!  I'm simply wondering if at the end of the day we don't put our trust in them. I wonder if we're trying to pour these good things (works, if you will) into our heart's vacuity because Jesus Christ and the story of the cross has been pushed out to the periphery. 

    I wonder if we don't say, "Aren't I good? I saved a .... today!" "Aren't I good? I'm not like those people out there. I'm conservative, I homeschool, I recycle, I'm feminine (sorry, guys, masculine), I eat only sea salt that I grind myself, I never show any cleavage (again, sorry guys), I enjoy sex in it's proper place (notice how avante guarde and non-puritanical I am!), I don't eat animals, I love whales, I march for life, I attend a meeting every night, I study Luther and the Puritans, I brew my own beer, I'll never watch Letterman again!, I didn't vote for the-one-who-cannot-be-named, I only read the red letters, I don't go to R rated movies, I adopted my dogs from rescue instead of buying. Yes, I'm good. Jesus? Oh, yes. There's Jesus, of course. But I've got to have a cause and...frankly...the only one that really captivates my heart is me and my own self-righteousness. Yummy. Oh, yes. Jesus is nice for that imputed righteousness stuff. But I've got to get to the end of the day and say that I've got hope that I'm better or at least good enough...and there's where my real trust is."

    Now...let's get to the Introductory Matters. Just a thought: Forde writes, "The cross is in the first instance God's attack on human sin...As an attack it reveals that the real seat of sin is not in the flesh but in our spiritual aspirations, in our theology of glory." (1)..."Therefore the theology of the cross is an offensive theology. The offense consists in the fact that unlike other theologies it attacks what we usually consider the best in our religion" (italics added, p. 2). 

    Have at it. I can finally feel better about myself now because I've blogged for you. Aren't I good?

First, thanks to all of you who've posted (and tried to!). In order to stop unsavory characters from posting on our blog, I have to keep everyone in "Moderation" until I approve your posting (and you). So...if you've tried to post and can't figure out why it wasn't showing up immediately, it's because I had to approve you. Now that I have approved everyone's comments, you'll be able to simply post whenever you like. There you go...post at will...

    Let me begin our discussion today with a few sidebars: 1) I know that many of you haven't gotten the book yet. Don't worry about it! We'll just discuss the beginning matters today (and this week) and you can start whenever your book arrives. 2) The beginning matters are more difficult to understand than the actual body of the book -- so if you struggled a bit during the last week trying to understand what Forde was saying, again...don't worry about it. Once you get into the actual discussion of Luther's theology, you'll find it easier to understand -- yet so very difficult to really plumb and live out. 

    One more housekeeping item: if you're going to quote from the book, try to remember to give us page numbers. That will make our interaction so much easier. And...if I fail to mention something that you think is important, please point it out!

    Thanks also to all of you who have let me know you're joining me. I think some people had trouble logging on. Keep trying, it is possible! Also, to those of you who emailed me personally and haven't posted yet, please join in. It will make our discussions so much more interesting and lively if we've got lots of ideas to consider.


    So now: the Preface. What I'll do is simply go through the text -- make comments, ask questions and then leave it up to you to begin discussions about the areas that interest you. 

    Forde gives three reasons for writing the book. The first is that he sees that there is interest in talking about a "theology of the cross" but there really isn't much available. Why do you suppose that is? Does that strike you as odd? 

    The second is that he believes that the cross is being "sentimentalized." I think that by this he means that people are feeling sorry for Jesus the Victim and using Christ's supposed "victimhood" as a way to connect with our psychologized "victim" culture. Here's a wonderful quote:

"In the end, Jesus suffers and dies because nobody identified with him. The people cried, 'Crucify him!' One of his disciples betrayed him, another denied him, the rest forsook him and fled. He died alone, forsaken even by God." (ix)

    But then he writes that Jesus isn't a victim. He's an operator. Jesus warns, "Weep not for me, but for yourselves and your children." Let's not sentimentalize the power and self-sacrifice of the cross. Because God is the one operating in the cross, we suffer the "absolute and unconditional working of God upon us." (ix) It's humbling to see that we have to be "operated [worked] on". How do you respond to that thought?

    Forde's third reason for writing is that language is slipping. "We are no longer sinners, but rather victims." Luther was concerned that we "say what a thing is." In other words the theology of the cross should make us call a spade a spade and not give in to "greeting card sentimentality." (x) 

    Further, we are to be concerned with "usus, the way the cross is put to use in our lives." (xii) [Luther] "gives an account of what those who have been smitten and raised up through the event of the cross do." (xii) How is the cross "put to use" in your life today?

    The theology of the cross will always seem negative and critical against the optimism of a theology of glory. (xiii) People love the optimism of books that explain the "7 secret steps to a more wonderful you" because we love the glory story. You'll understand this more fully as we go on.  Can you think of some glory stories that are in our culture? Some that you've embraced?

    Wowzers. Well, I think that's enough for now. There's plenty more to be said from the preface alone but I want to hear from you. We'll get to the "Introductory Matters" tomorrow or Sunday or...Have at it! 


    

I'm so excited about our virtual book club especially since I've heard from many of you (most haven't posted) and I'm really glad that you're going to take the plunge. Can't wait!!!

Here's a word of encouragement/caution...don't be intimidated by this book! It might be a little slow going to begin with. In fact, I spent last evening re-reading the preface and introductory matters and I'll be honest -- there were times that I was wandering a bit in the forest and just didn't have a clue.

That's been my experience while reading many books that have become dear friends. Sometimes I just don't get what the author is saying. There...I've said it. Now we all can.  Let's practice together: 1-2-3: "I don't get it!"

Even so, here's the lesson I've learned: if I keep reading (and praying) I eventually get it (sort of). I've learned to take what meat I can and leave the bones of confusion on the page. (Euuu...that's an icky metaphor!) Saying all this to say don't be discouraged. Don't give up. Whenever I start a new exercise program it always hurts to begin with and then it's amazing how quickly I find myself adapting. My husband, Phil, is reading a book that's stretching him and he told me today that he's really beginning to understand it -- he's half-way through! It's that way for all of us. He's adapting. You will, too.

This won't be a fluffy study. You wouldn't expect that from me and it's my persuasion that fluff won't feed your soul the way you want to be fed. But real food takes some cutting up and chewing (here I am back at THAT metaphor again).

So...you're entering a no-fluff zone. You'll love it. Don't give up. Be comfortable with "I don't get it." Ask for help. Ask God for help. Keep reading. The fluff stops here.

One of the most enjoyable times of fellowship I've had over the last decade or so has been during the book club that met in my house. Like most book clubs, we chose a book and then we "Swans" went through it together, often with very lively discussions. Because my life is now such that this kind of gathering would be very difficult for me and because I love On Being A Theologian of the Cross: Reflections on Luther's Heidelberg Disputation, 1518...I was thinking that it might be fun (my goal in everything!) and deeply enriching to spend some time working through this wonderful little book that will change your life and tweak your thinking, too.

So, let's start this discussion in earnest in about one week around the 12th of June; that would give you time to get the book and read Introductory Matters. I'll try to get through a few pages each week (notice that I'm not committing to getting through a whole chapter each week!) and post my thoughts.

Here's a quote from page 1, "The cross is in the first instance God's attack on human sin...Strange attack -- to suffer and die at our hands!  God's 'alien work,' Luther called it.  As an attack it reveals that the real seat of sin is not in the flesh but in our spiritual aspiration, in our 'theology of glory.' The point is that what happens in the cross is completely contradictory to our usual religious thinking."

Pertinent bibliographical info on the book:
On Being A Theologian of the Cross: Reflections on Luther's Heidelberg Disputation, 1518 by Gerhard O. Forde, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997.

Welcome to my blog...yes...I've finally succumbed to the internet age. Although I've previously thought about blogging as a writer's worst enemy, I've decided that it's time for me to get with it. So, let me start out today by quoting Martin Luther (of course!) and start with a promise that I'll be posting as frequently as possible and look forward to hearing from you, too.

Let's begin today with Martin Luther's Disputation to the Heidelberg Catechism, Thesis 1:

"The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance humans on their way to righteousness, but rather hinders them." That's something for us all to think about as we go through our day. The law doesn't advance me on my way to righteousness. Only Jesus Christ makes me righteous today. Yes, there is a place for the law but my obedience or disobedience to it doesn't change my standing with God at all today. Now...may I live in obedience today because I've been given this great gift.  

I'll be back soon with audio and video pod casts and who knows what else!